Go and kill in the name of the Lord my son! There was a matched pair of these found.

.357 Magnum semi-automatic with solid gold grips.

This guy had a better gun collection that most legitimate museums do.

Just a quaint little villa in the hills - Drug money bought it all!

Man-made cave and hot tub inside the home.

A collection of exotic animals - which were cared for in the grandest fashion, by the way.

7 Lions were on the property.

A very rare Tiger.

The back yard pool.

Exotic art collection - some of which was illegal to own - some stolen.

They just burned it all down!

More guns than you could ever imagine!

This pile of cash before it was counted was estimated to be approximately 18 million dollars!

After it was counted it turned out to be a little MORE than 22 MILLION DOLLARS!

From another angle.

Guns were hidden all over the house along with ample Ammo just in case of trouble.

Stacks of cash were found in every nook and cranny.

This case is filled with 100 dollar Bills estimated to be 1/2 a million dollars - no doubt headed out to make another drug buy perhaps from the Columbians.

18 plastic bins filled with 100 dollar bills were found.

Another cabinet stacked tight with cash - all 100's.

More 100's.

Each of these stacks of 100's holds $250,000 (a quarter of a million dollars)!

They also had millions in Colombian money and Mexican Pesos, although they preferred American dollars for the most part.

There were even some stacks of Chinese Yuan found in one closet.

More Gold machine guns and pistols - most were never fired, just held for collection value.

The money and valuables found in this one house alone, would be enough to pay for health insurance for every man woman and child in the U.S.A. for 12 years! There are believed to be approximately 27 more of these houses in Mexico alone not to mention the ones in other countries who are enriching themselves in the drug trade. These people have so much money, they make the Arab oil sheiks look like welfare recipients.

S.L.: This will make an AWESOME POST - any details (who/what/where/when/why or how many) about this raid?

CHAZ: Sean, sorry, no details. This has been out for a while and I didn't see it attributed to any source. It's not faked up but I don't know how it could be verified with sources.

I don't think anyone would call "BRAVO SIERRA" on this but I understand your desire to present verified info. Tell 'em a pal sent it to you, he lives down on the border and the article has been floating around for a while.

(Later, CHAZ writes):

Sean, more digging, found Snopes verified the story but also seems some of the pictures in the mix are from a raid by Colombian Policia and Marina, or by Mex authorities against Colombian dealers.

All I have to say is with enough money you can fund your own army, buy all the swimming pools you need, make some small donations to the Democratic Party, kill anyone who gets in your way and live big, at least for a while. This stuff barely gets publicized - if at all - down here in Mexifornia and Azatlan.

The money, the raw power, the paramilitary organisation of the cartels.

They rule south of the border. Kill or scare off or buy the Mexican police and military. Kidnap anyone they want, demand ransom and then maybe kill the victim anyway.

There have been small-scale incursions up here in the US, in border towns like El Paso. Headlines usually say something like "gang violence" or "drug war" like we shouldn't worry about it too much, it's just those rats-ass gang-bangers.

They have more firepower than any of the LE groups I've seen around these parts. The National Guard would have their hands full if those cartel boys got pissed about something.

And to think that we in the west spend billions every year making sure these people have a monopoly on the drugs trade- its £10bn for GB alone, God knows what the total is. And don't tell me that there's no drugs available on the streets- anymore than that there was no alcohol available during prohibition. Legalise the stuff and the criminals will find that their skills are superfluous- so there'll be less of them.

Pat is dreaming. Legalize drugs hey? What makes you think the cartels would just give up and go away and leave billions of dollars of business to a competitor? Why would they just quit? They have every business advantage terror, no taxes and no labor problems. Laws are for honest people. These poeple would not give up period. There are lottery games and casinos everywhere and there is still illegal gambling why would the illegal drug industry be any different? Answer: it wouldn't.